LearLearn hon how to makw to make stunning are stunning arcchihi--tecturtecture in the ge in the grreaeat tutorial bt tutorial byyBlenon paBlenon pagge 15.e 15.

PParar t 3 oft 3 of “J“Jamie’amie’s”s” ChainsaChainsaw tutow tuto--rial.rial. Get yGet your cour chainsahainsaw rw readeady toy torrun on paun on pagge 23.e 23.

CINEMA 4D in the cCINEMA 4D in the classrlassroom.oom. RReadeadthe interthe intervieview with High Scw with High Schoolhoolteacteacher Richer Richarhard Pd Perer rinerineon paon pagge 6.e 6.

ISSUE - NOVEMBER 2005

Page 3 Editors Notes

Page 6-9 CINEMA 4D in the Classroom by Tavy ann

Page 10 C4D Quiz

Page 11-14 Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4D by Rui Batista

PAGE 15-20 Architecture Tutorial by Blend

PAGE 21-22 MAXON USER MEETING by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 23-25 Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Pt3 by Jamie Hamel-Smith

PAGE 26-27 Vital Disclosure - BP2 Insider Secrets by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 28 Sound Driven Animation by Chris Montesano

PAGE 29-30 ZBrush Introduction Part 2 by Mark Gmehling

PAGE 31-33 3D Attack - A UFO Report by Georg Niedermeier

PAGE 34-37 Compositing Tutorial by Jeff Hogan

PAGE 36-37 Artist Spotlight on Mattias Bober

Page 39-42 Using DPit to Create Grass by A Bubbles 4D Member

Page 43-44 Spline Tools Review by Gary Zullo

03

Editor’Editor’s Notess Notes

READER COMMENTS

Dale NC -” WOW! I had no ideathere was a CINEMA 4D Magazine.Goodbye 3D World and HELLO 3DATTACK!”

Jeanne 3D - “Thanks so much for allof the hard work. Please hurry withthe next issue. I need my ATTACK”

Damsel - “Another wonderful radioshow you two! I think you reallygave out some good food forthought this week on supportingeach other and the software as wellas the plugin developers and the "lit-tle guy". Without our support, we alllose. Thanks Tank & Tavy for anoth-er great show and lots to thinkabout. Everyone alerted on PlanIT3D as always.”

Neosushi - “HOLY POLY Replica isgreat. It's ease of use combinedwith the clear setup of the Pluginsinterface. GREAT. As a motion gfxdesigner Replica is a must have.Even if your not a MoGfxDes. Thechainmail example combined withCloth is absolutely awesome. Keepup the great Work 3D Attack, I loveyour tools alot. Plus the Octoberissue is stuffed with alot of greatcontent. Gonna read mine in thelunch break.”

Attack the CINEMA4D Magazine and all material con-

tained therein are copyright protected. You may not dis-

assemble or distribute any part of this publication with-

out prior written consent from 3D Attack directly. Any

attempts to do so will be prosecuted to the fullest extent

of the law as it applies in Michigan, USA. This applies

for both 3D Attack material as well as any named artist

contained in its publications. Although we read through

all the tutorials and proof-read them for errors we can-

not guarantee that they are 100% error-free and there-

fore cannot issue refunds based on those errors.

Hello Readers and Attackers!

WOW! It’s been a busy month here

at 3D Attack. So much has been

happening. The magazine, radio

show, forum, and plug-ins.

Speaking of plug-ins...did you hear

the news? SHE’S BACK! JENNA

v.2.25! For more information

regarding JENNA v.2.25 visit our

forum at

http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showt

hread.php?t=3872

KEEP ON ATTACKING!

The 3D Attack Team

***GOODIES FOLDER***

http://www.3dattack.net/goodies/

As most of our readers know, your

goodies folder usually comes zipped

with your magazine. We have

decided to do the Goodies a bit dif-

ferent. You will now find your

Goodies folder at http://www.3dat-

tack.net/goodies/ for download.

This allows us to make changes to

the Goodies folder easily, (if need-

ed) and provide you with the access

to the Goodies at all times.

Remember, the Goodies are copy-

right protected, as is the magazine.

These Goodies are for paying read-

ers only. DO NOT redistribute your

download link or your Goodies fold-

er.

BODYPAINT TRAINING DVD

Nigel Doyle (3DKiwi) of

C4dcafe.com has released his new

BodyPaint training DVD.

Discovering BodyPaint 3D 2 & 2.5

with 3DKiwi is now available for

purchase at:

http://www.c4dcafe.com/3dkiwi/bpsh

op/index.html Be looking for a com-

plete evaluation and review of this

great new training DVD in the

December issue of 3D Attack.

3D ATTACK RADIO

Yep, 3D Attack is now doing a radio

type broadcast. Our goal with the

radio show is to have fun and bring

our listeners CINEMA 4D related

information. While we are not pro-

fessionals in this area, we hope you

will enjoy the show. Be sure to

check it out on

www.3dattack.ne/radio, or subscribe

to our podcasts within ITunes.

Simply go to the "Advanced" menu

in iTunes and choose "Subscribe to

Podcast...". Enter this link:

http://www.3dattack.net/radio/3DAT-

TACK-CINEMA4DNEWS.xml

Advertising with 3D Attack

If you would like to advertise with 3D

Attack send us an e-mail requesting

our media kit and rate card.

3dattack@3dattack.net

Reviews

If you would like 3D Attack to evalu-

ate and review your product, or if

you are a member of the press and

would like to evaluate and review

the 3D Attack line of plug-ins for

CINEMA 4D, feel free to contact

Thomas Pasieka at:

3dattack@3dattack.net

Tutorials

If you have any questions or com-

ments regarding the tutorials within

the magazine, please feel free to

express them on or CINEMA 4D dis-

cussion forum at www.3dattack.net

Contact Information

3D Attack

158 S. Saginaw St.

Chesaning, Michigan 48616 - USA

E-mail: 3dattack@3dattack.net

zBlur:

zBlur is a post effect for Cinema 4D which can be used as an alternative

to C4D's own DOF. zBlur does not cancel out other post effects, it does

not require the Advanced Render module, and it supports reflections and

bleed control.

zBlur also has a preview window and a reference object that can make

changes right in the editor.

LUMEN:

LUMEN is a plug-in for Cinema 4D which provides a fast and efficient

global illumination and special effects solution.

LUMEN creates an array of lights using a source object's points or poly-

gons. LUMEN source objects can be any polygon object, spline, primi-

tive, or primitive spline, and several light parameters can be controlled

with information derived from bitmaps or procedural textures.

OLX:

OLX is a Cinema 4D plug-in that replaces and extends Cinema's built in

Object Library functionality. Not only does OLX support submenus, it

also supports separate libraries for documents, scenes, objects, materi-

als, render settings and layouts.

LSD:

LSD is a post effect plug-in for CINEMA 4D that can be used to create

stunning color/special effects. LSD gives you the ability to use a new

created zBuffer or CINEMA 4D’s own zBuffer to colorize, desaturate,

and/or add grain and noise to your pictures or animations.

For a complete list of 3D Attack Plug-in features, prices, videos, tutorials and screenshots visit our shop at www.3dattack.net/shop/

Inte

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Tavy: Hi Richard. Thanks so much

for taking time to speak with 3D

Attack today. Would you mind shar-

ing a bit about you and what you

do?

Richard: Hi Tavy. I would like to

start by saying that I am honored

that 3DAttack has an interest in our

program at Parish Episcopal School.

I live in the Dallas, TX area with my

beautiful wife Maria and awesome

newborn son Timothy.

I have a background in pathogenic

and cancer research, but currently

teach at a Christian private school

named Parish Episcopal School.

I teach courses in biology and 3D

Modeling & Animation, sponsor the

Marine Biology Research Club and

coach girl’s soccer. Can’t forget to

mention that I’m a huge soccer fan!

And I love to create using C4D!

Tavy: Why did you choose teaching

as your career path? How long

have you been teaching?

Richard: Wow. After graduating

from college, I joined the United

States Peace Corps. I spent 4 years

in southern Africa as a science

teacher. That experience was and is

one of the most pivotal moments of

my life.

I knew then that teaching was

something that I eventually wanted

to explore as a career when I

returned to the US. I had a wonder-

ful time! I’ve been teaching for about

8 cumulative years now with a num-

ber of years of research inter-dis-

persed.

Tavy: What brought about the idea

of implementing a 3D Modeling and

Animation program into the curricu-

lum at Parish Episcopal School?

Why CINEMA 4D?

Richard: I really got hooked on

computers and computer technolo-

gies when I returned from the Peace

Corps. I was always interested in

and dabbled in drawing and art, in

general. And, I have always been

and continue to be, a child at heart.

I love watching 3D animations and

cartoons. In fact, I am an avid

watcher of the Cartoon Network and

Boomerang, for their artistic value,

of course.

When I saw Pixar’s Toy Story a few

years back, I was blown away. I

knew then that I wanted to return to

my modest creative side and find

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out how they created the wonderful

3D animations and try to create my

own works. I spent a few years

exploring 3D art and animation and

tried demos of a number of the

other popular 3D applications. To tell

you the truth, I was not overly

impressed with some of the other

applications. They were either too

difficult to satisfy my immediate

needs or did not produce the quality

that I was looking for.

To make a long story short, I left

research, returned to teaching, and

found a great position with Parish

Episcopal School. It was only logi-

cal, with my interests in animation

and computer technologies that I

develop a 3D Modeling and

Animation program at the school.

It wasn’t difficult to implement the

idea to the school. Parish has

always been supportive of creative

and new ideas. I am blessed to be a

part of the school.

Why C4D? That’s easy. It is, in my

opinion, the most user-friendly appli-

cation while still possessing the

tools in producing professional quali-

ty renders.

I wanted to make sure that I chose

an application that was both profes-

sionally recognized and would allow

high school students the reasonable

opportunity to create vivid works in a

short period of time. C4D’s UI and

learning curve is ideal in teaching

our students the wonders of 3D

modeling and animation.

I taught myself how to model and

animate using C4D in a matter of a

couple of months. I feel pretty adept

at the modeling and basic anima-

tion. I still have much to learn, but

it’s always fun re-discovering C4D.

It’s my hope to eventually establish

a small production animation studio

using C4D at the school. I think that

it would be a huge success and

resource for the for kids and adults

within the Dallas community who

are interested in 3D modeling and

animation. I have big dreams, but

believe it can become a reality.

Tavy: How many students are cur-

rently enrolled in your CINEMA

class, and what are their ages?

Richard: I teach high school aged

students. Their ages range from 14-

18. My first class currently has 11

enrolled. I will have 19 next

trimester. The maximum class size

is 19.

Tavy: Can you give us an idea of

what your students will learn in a

typical semester? What is an aver-

age day like in your classroom?

Richard: 3D Modeling & Animation

is a trimester course. I am hoping

that, with the development and suc-

cess of the course, it will become a

full year elective in the future.

We meet every other day for 90-

minutes. During the first couple of

weeks, I introduce the students to

the UI. As I am showing the stu-

dents the UI, I am doing so by pro-

jecting what I am doing on my

screen to a projection screen at the

front of the room. I’m also helping

them become familiar with the UI by

demonstrating

modeling/texturing/animating tech-

niques.

After a few weeks, I let the students

go at it. Until I teach something new,

they are free to create whatever

their heart desires, within reason.

The students are strongly encour-

aged to ask questions and I do my

best to help them individually or as

a group. I believe that this is the

best way for students to learn. This

method instruction allows students

to move at their own pace. Let them

explore and discover what C4D is

capable of. This is what happens on

most days. They come in and start

working on their projects.

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Wolfi Roehrborn

Students have 5 projects to turn in

within an 11-12 week period. A mod-

estly simple multiple-choice test is

given to test their knowledge of the

application and at the end of the

trimester, a practical is given.

The practical will involve having stu-

dents pick an object from a hat and

modeling/texturing/animating that

object within a 90-minute period.

The objects are basic, but challeng-

ing enough that they are compelled

to dig beyond the surface to accom-

plish it.

This class is designed to be fun and

as an alternative artistic outlet.

By the end of the trimester, the stu-

dents will have a pretty good sense

of how to use most of the primitives,

scenes, deformations, the names

and functions of the UI, various

modeling modes, keyframe anima-

tion, materials/texturing, many of the

functions/tools, and a little Mocca.

The knowledge they obtain is cer-

tainly enough to get them shooting

out of the gates!

Tavy: My son is 12 years old, and I

am amazed at the speed in which

he is learning CINEMA 4D. He just

loves this application and it’s ease

of use. How are your students pro-

gressing? Do they enjoy what they

are learning?

Richard: My students are experi-

encing the same. They are having a

fantastic time with C4D. I spent a

good portion of my summer creating

a week-by-week syllabus/curriculum

and felt pretty good about it.

I had to toss it after 4 or so weeks

because the kids were learning so

quickly! It’s turned out much better

than I had anticipated. And I’m hav-

ing a great time teaching them!

I don’t even consider it work. I’ve

been amazed at the quality of work

my kids are producing having never

touched a 3D application before.

Tavy: Have any of your students

expressed a desire to pursue

3D/CG as a career?

Richard: Some have. Many of the

students are understandably in the

class to fulfill their art or computer

science requirements, but, there are

some very artistic and computer

savvy kids who are genuinely inter-

ested in 3D/CG.

I hope that this class will encourage

or inspire more of our kids to

explore the possibility of pursuing a

career in animation or computer

graphics.

Tavy: What do you do to keep

abreast of the changes and innova-

tions in education concerning 3D

and CINEMA 4D?

Richard: I go online! I read and

sometimes participate in the forums

in CGTalk, C4DCafe and 3DAttack,

and, of course, the Maxon website

to keep abreast of what is going on

in 3D and Cinema 4D.

I am convinced that the general

C4D community must be regarded

among the most welcoming and

helpful. I’ve learned a great deal by

visiting the forums.

Tavy: What is the greatest reward

you have received through teach-

ing?

Richard: The acknowledgment and

respect of my students. As a

teacher, I’m a work in progress and

I’m always trying to develop better

ways to teach. It really makes it all

worth while when your students rec-

ognize the efforts that you make as

a teacher and respect you. I love

being with the kids!

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Jackson Wimberly

Tavy: Thanks again Richard for

this opportunity and interview. We

at 3D Attack wish you and your stu-

dents much success. Do you have

any last words for our readers

and/or your students?

Richard: CINEMA 4D rocks! Thank

you Tavy and 3D Attack for this

opportunity to share a little bit about

myself and our great school. Keep

modeling AND animating! And, of

course, thank you MAXON!

I was really excited to have theopportunity to interview Richard andspotlight not only his work, but hisstudents as well. In Mid - Michigan, Itaught primary through high schoolgrades for 3 years in a small privateschool. Due to limited funding, itwas near impossible to implementprograms such as the 3D Modelingand Animation class ParishEpiscopal School has brought totheir curriculum. I give a big“thumbs up” to Richard and adminis-tration at Parish. The children areour future! Thank you for realizingthis and implementing programs thatwill shape and mold them for suc-cess!

A little note to Richard’s

students...YOU ROCK! KEEP ONATTACKING! -Tavy Ann

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zBlur is a post effect for Cinema 4D which can be used as an alternative to C4D's own DOF. zBlur

does not cancel out other post effects, it does not require the Advanced Render module, and it sup-

ports reflections and bleed control. zBlur also has a preview window and a reference object that can

make changes right in the editor.

WIN zBLUR

Answer the question below for a chance to win zBlur!

Question: What 6 plug-ins are currently available in the 3D Attack Shop?

Send an e-mail with zBlur in the subject line, the answer to the question above along with your real name in the e-mail

body to 3dattack@3dattack.net. You will then be pooled with the other entrants for a random drawing on December 1,

2005. Our winner will be notified via e-mail and on our CINEMA 4D discussion forum at http://www.3dattack.net

*3D Attack staff and/or their immediate families are not eligible to enter and/or win the C4D Quiz.

Procedural Shaders in

CINEMA 4D

This will be the very first of a series

of articles about the procedural

shaders that come, included, with

CINEMA 4D.

Before I start talking about the pro-

cedural shaders, I will explain in lay-

man terms (or the best I can), what

exactly a procedural shader is.

A procedural shader is a computer

program. Through calculations an

image is generated and that is what

is used to texture an object. There

are advantages and disadvantages

with procedural shaders. The advan-

tages are:

- Procedural shaders are usually

very small. They don't take up any

disk space and require less memory

than bitmap textures.

- Procedural shaders are resolution

independent. So, no matter how

much you zoom in or how big you

enlarge your objects, there will

never be any pixelation.

- They are also portable. This

means that you don't have to save

any additional file when transporting

your C4D file to another computer.

Of course, this only applies to CINE-

MA 4D native procedural shaders. If

you use third-party shaders, you

must make sure they exist in the

destination computer.

- Procedural shaders can be "intelli-

gent". Meaning that they can know

things that a regular bitmap texture

can't and react accordingly. For

example, they can know the angle

of a face in relation to the camera.

They can know the size of the

object. They can know the thickness

of the object. They can know what

lights hit the surface, etc.

The disadvantages are:

- Procedural shaders can be slower

than bitmap textures. This is

because with procedural shaders

calculations are involved.

Sometimes, these calculations can

be very complex and slow.

- Due to their mathematical nature,

procedural shaders can show a very

evident repeating pattern. this is

because a computer can't create

true random events (only natural

events can be truly random. On a

computer only pseudo-random num-

bers or events can be generated).

Creating a procedural texture that

looks "natural" is often hard to

achieve.

- Procedural shaders are an "all or

nothing" deal. When you apply a

texture based on a procedural shad-

er to an object, you are not able to

make the texture slightly different in

a specific area. With a bitmap, you

can simply paint a different motif or

locally adjust some pixels. With pro-

cedural shaders, even if possible, it

requires the use of masks and multi-

ple projections.

Now that we know a little more

about what procedural shaders are

and how they work, let us start with

the first shader of this series of arti-

cles: the Gradient shader.

You may think: "Mmmm, the

Gradient shader? Does this even

justify a whole article? I know what it

does... it does color gradients. What

is the science behind it?". Well, I

can assure you that almost all pro-

cedural shaders justify an article,

but I decided to start with one of the

"apparently" simpler ones.

Most of the options from the gradi-

ent shader are pretty self-explanato-

ry. For example, I will not teach here

how to add new color swatches or

how to adjust them, but I will sur-

prise you by explaining you some

options you always took for granted.

The Type of gradient has eleven

options. I can bet you almost never

used more than three of four at

most. The ones you use more often

are the 2D-U, the 2D-V, the 2D-

Circular and, maybe, the 2D-

Diagonal. It’s a shame because

most of the other options can be

very useful. I will explain them all,

nevertheless. I assume you know

what UV coordinates are (you need

to know that to understand how the

gradient is applied to the surface),

but if you don't, I will give you a brief

explanation.

All surfaces can have UV coordi-

nates. If they don't already, new UV

coordinates can be assigned.

Remember those 2D charts you

learned in school? There was an X

axis running at the bottom from left

to right, and a Y axis running at the

left side from bottom to top. You

could, for example, chart your

grades values (Y axis) along the

years you spent in school (X axis).

Ok, the UV coordinates are like

those charts: the U stands for X and

the V stands for Y. Now, imagine a

square chart. The U coordinates

(from left to right) range from 0

(zero) to 1. The Y coordinates (from

bottom to top) also range from 0

(zero) to 1. If you flatten your object

- you don't have to do so, it’s done

internally. This is just for the sake of

example - and place the flattened

out faces inside that square chart,

you can now visualize how the U

and V coordinates correspond for

each point on the surface of the

polygons of your model. Many mod-

els can easily be spread out into a

Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista

11

Tuto

rial

continuos surface, such as spheres

and torus. Some can't and you have

to split some parts.This is not really

very important right now. What mat-

ters is that you understand that all

surfaces can't have UV coordinates

and what those coordinates are.

So, the gradient type of 2D-U,

means that the gradient runs along

the U coordinate axis. Similarly, the

gradient type of 2D-V, produces a

gradient that runs along the V coor-

dinate axis. The gradient type 2D-

Diagonal will, obviously, produce a

gradient that runs along both U and

V axis, simultaneously. (Pictures

01,02 and 03)

The 2D-Radial type produces a gra-

dient that is just like a "radar", turn-

ing around a center that is located in

the center of the U and V coordinate

axis. (Picture 04) The 2D-Circular

type will produce a gradient that

spreads out from the center of the U

and V coordinate axis. (Picture 05)

The 2D-Box type is great for creat-

ing frames as it creates a gradient

that grows linearly from the center of

the U and V coordinate axis to the

edges. (Picture 06)The 2D-Star

type is similar to the 2D-Box type,

but instead of growing to the edges

of the UV coordinates system, it

grows to the corners. It’s like a diag-

onal 2D-Box. (Picture 07)

Finally, the 2D-Four Corner type is a

bit weirder. It creates a linear gradi-

ent from the center of the U and V

coordinates axis to the corners. The

colors it uses for the corners are the

colors of the first four color swatch-

es of the gradient. (Picture 08)

Ok, these were the 2D type of gradi-

ents. What about the 3D types?

They are gradients that are calculat-

ed as a volume, not as a flat surface

that is wrapped around or spread

along a surface. Are they useful?

Well, they can be, if used in objects

that show, somehow, that they are

solid, like when we use booleans.

So, if you take slices of those

objects, the "inner" color, calculated

by the volumetric gradient will

appear. When you choose any type

of 3D gradient, a new set of options

becomes available: Start, End and,

for Spherical and Cylindrical gradi-

ents, Radius. For 3D-Linear gradi-

ents, the Start and End parameters

(X,Y and Z components) define the

start and end coordinates of the gra-

dient, as a vector. For those not

familiar to vector, let us say that a

vector is a line with a defined start-

ing point and an end point. Besides

having a specific length, it also has

a specific direction. (Picture 09)

If you have the Space parameter (at

the bottom) set to Object, the coor-

dinates you type in the Start and

End parameters relate to coordi-

nates relative to the object. So, if

you move the object, the gradient

moves with it accordingly. If you set

the Space parameter to World, the

Start and End parameters relate to

the world coordinates. If you move

the object, it will move through the

texture, making it appear to flow on

its surface. This Space parameter

applies to all other types of gradient

too, of course.

For 3D-Cylindrical gradients, the

Start and End parameters define a

vector that is the center of the cylin-

der. Since the Start and End param-

eters define the location and direc-

Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista

12

Tuto

rial

Picture01

Picture02

Picture03

Picture04

Picture05

Picture06

Picture07

Picture08

Picture09

tion of the cylinder, the Radius

parameter defines its radius (obvi-

ous!!). (Picture 10)

For 3D-Spherical gradients, the

Start parameters (no need to use

the End parameters as they become

dimmed) define the center of the

gradient. The Radius parameter

defines the radius of the virtual

sphere where the gradient is creat-

ed. (Picture 11)

You didn't know all this stuff about

the types of gradients, did you? The

Gradient shader is proving to be

more powerful than it looked at first

glance and you can check out some

examples of the not so orthodox

uses of it in the samples files I pro-

vide. Ok, on with the remaining

parameters.

The Cycle parameters, when on,

allows the gradient to start over

once it goes over the end (and also

when it goes prior its start). This is

specially useful when the material

that contains a gradient is tiled.

(Picture 12 and 13) The Turbulence

parameter, when set higher than

0%, introduces "noise" in the gradi-

ent. It’s almost like steering the usu-

ally neat linear gradient. I always

like to add some turbulence, even if

as low as 1-3%, to move away from

the clean, accurate computer-graph-

ics look of the linear gradients.

The Octaves parameters defines

how accurately the turbulence is cal-

Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista

13

Tuto

rial

Picture10

Picture11

Picture12

Picture13

culated. Setting it lower will require

less calculations, but will render a

coarser turbulence. Setting it higher

will improve the detail of the turbu-

lence, but will increase calculation

times.The Scale parameter should

be named Detail. Increasing it will

create smaller details in the turbu-

lence. Decreasing it will make the

turbulence appear larger. So, just

think of it as an Inverse-Scale

parameter. The Frequency parame-

ter will animate the turbulence, set-

ting how many changes will occur

during a second of animation. Even

if you set it higher than 0 (zero), you

will probably see nothing different.

You usually have to render your

scene as an animation to see the

results, but you can check out the

animated turbulence in the gradient

before rendering. Just right-click the

thumbnail (Command+click on the

Mac) and choose Animate from the

contextual menu. Don't forget to turn

off the Animate, as soon as you

don't need it, because it consumes

a lot of time and resources when

you modify any parameter.The

Angle parameter will only work for

2D gradients (for 2D-Circular will do

nothing, of course). With it you can

rotate the resulting gradient. When

the Absolute parameter is on, the

gradient refers to the Turbulence

only, and not to the entire span of

the texture. Let us say that it creates

an even distribution of the texture,

lowering the contrast. I already

talked about the Space parameter

briefly, but I will now explain all the

options a bit more in depth.

When set to Texture, the gradient is

applied to the object and

moves/scales/rotates with it. It is

applied considering the projection

parameters of the Texture tag.

When set to Object, the gradient is

applied to the object and

moves/scales/rotates with it. It

ignores the projection parameters of

the Texture tag. When set to World,

the gradient is calculated in world

coordinates and the object

moves/scales/rotates through it. It’s

almost like the gradient is being pro-

jected by a slide projector to the

object. Setting the Space parameter

to Camera, the gradient is calculat-

ed as a camera projection. The

object moves/scales/rotates through

the gradient, and camera move-

ments also move the texture around

the object.The Screen mode calcu-

lates the gradient in the screen

space, including Z depth. The object

moves/scales/rotates through the

gradient and camera movements

also move the texture around the

object.

Finally, the Raster mode calculates

the gradient in screen pixels space

and has absolutely no depth infor-

mation. The object

moves/scales/rotates through the

gradient and camera movements

also move the texture around the

object.

Well, all the parameters are cov-

ered. There are a few hidden

parameters though... The gradient

parameters that only appear when

we unroll them, by clicking the trian-

gle on the left of the gradient color

band. I will not dig into those here,

because they are not really parame-

ters of the Gradient shader. My

advice: play with them. The

Interpolation parameters set to None

is particularly useful.

We reached the end of this article. I

hope you liked it and learned some-

thing about the apparently straight-

forward Gradient shader.

Much more will be covered in the

following articles. Stay tuned and...

Keep on Attacking :) -Rui

Procedural Shaders in CINEMA 4DBy Rui Batista

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Hello Attackers!

This tutorial will cover the basic set-

tings you need for putting up an

architectural ambient. We'll cover all

the steps, from importing your origi-

nal drawings/plan, setting up your

layout, modeling your ambient, set-

ting up the lights and finally render-

ing your desired views. I assume

you have a basic knowledge of the

main tools and commands in C4D.

I’ll also provide the complete file

used for this tutorial. Please do not

use this file or tutorial for any com-

mercial purpose. Thank you.

Let's start by importing your draw-

ings... 90% of the time when you

model an architectural ambient you'll

start by using plans you import from

AutoCAD or some other 2D soft-

ware. C4D has the ability to import

files from Illustrator and open it,

enabling you to use the lines... For

those of you who ignore that,

Illustrator can open all .dwg files,

maintaining all layers and proper-

ties, which can be pretty useful as

you will see later on.

A small note concerning importing

and opening files:

C4D can import Illustrator files with

version no later than v.8

As for Illustrator, it can import files

from AutoCAD ,but no later than

v2000. Therefore, make sure to

save your AutoCAD files in version

2000, and your illustrator files in ver-

sion 8.

That said, let's start working...

For this tutorial I’ve decided to

model my room up in the moun-

tain... it’s more of a small study with

a bed in it. Anyhow, I took some

basic measures, planned it in

AutoCCad, then passed it to

Illustrator. I saved the plan in vers8

(fig1). Let’s go to C4D. Open a new

file, click on open, and select the

Illustrator file. You'll see that the file

opens, and you have access to all

the lines you've drawn previously

(fig2). Two things are to be consid-

ered; C4D seems to ignore the lay-

ers used in illustrator; therefore

you'll get a whole bunch of lines

under 1 group (fig3).

We'll proceed as follows:

1. Select the group in the object

manager.

2. Go to the object coordinator and

reset the settings in x y and z to

zero moving your plan to the center

of the space. (fig4)

4. Go to the top view (do this by

clicking F2 or select it manually) and

make a rotation of the group of -90

degrees on Y.

5. As you have noticed, we need to

rotate some parts of the plan in

order to create a virtual cube (basi-

cally rotating the elevations we

made earlier). So select the set of

lines with the rectangular live selec-

tion tool (fig5), cut it (ctrl x) and then

paste it, this will allow us to select

the specific lines easier, put them all

under 1 group (alt + g)(fig.5a). Then

rotate change the rotation value on

P to ZERO (fig.5b)

6. Do the same with the other sides

we need and rotate them by 90

degrees to form the virtual cube

(fig6) (Change the names of each

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Fig.1

Fig.2

Fig.3

Fig.4

elevation to Side and Front). The

final step in setting our layout is to

“close” the virtual cube we’ve creat-

ed. We will do so in 3 steps:

Select the object axis tool of the

side elevation. Go to its rotation val-

ues in the attributes tab. Reset the

value to zero (fig.7). That will allow

u to rotate the gizmo back to its nor-

mal position.

Go to the snap settings tab, and

enable it to Snap 3D, deselect GRID

and GRIDLINE, and select POINT.

(fig.8). That will allow u to move and

snap the object directly from the

perspective view to any point.

Select your object move its gizmo to

the inner corner (the outer 1 repre-

sents the thickness of the wall)

(fig9), then select back the model

tool and move it near the inner cor-

ner of the plan view… it will snap

directly to it. (fig.10) Repeat the

same with the remaining elevations.

(fig.11) Once you’re done with that,

select all the groups we’ve created

and place them under a null object

(alt + g) and call it 2D References,

then go to tags, and add a

Protection Tag in order not to make

any mistakes with it later on.

Now that we have set our elevations

and plan, let’s start modeling it.

There's no specific way to be fol-

lowed. In this tutorial I’ll introduce

the way that suits me most.

Before starting, a small introduction

to snapping... snapping is very

important at this stage as it will be

quite useful to build the ambient.

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Fig.5

Fig.5a

Fig.5b

Fig.6

Fig.7

Fig.8

Fig.9

Fig.10

Fig.11

Snapping can be done in 3 modes

in C4D (3d snap, 2.5D and 2D) we

are going to use the splines import-

ed from Illustrator as guides and

snap to it to create our lines... You'll

ask yourself now, why are we not

using the splines already imported

from Illustrator; well for many rea-

sons: Even though the file we're

using now is not complicated, when

you import files from illustrator you'll

usually find yourself with a whole

bunch of lines which are difficult to

select or connected in weird ways. I

find it safer to rebuild above it. This

way you'll get clean lines, just the

way you want it, and your original

plans will be intact for a future

change or reference.

Let’s start by creating the floor…

Make sure that 3d snap is enabled

and the point tab is selected. Turn

off all the elevation groups you have

and leave the Plan active (fig12)

Then directly from the perspective

view, start by creating your spline,

snapping to the respective corners

(fig13)

Once done, make sure to check the

“close spline” tab, and drag into an

Extrude Object (fig14). Reset all the

values to zero, so you can get it

completely flat. Your floor is created.

Don’t forget to change the name of

the Extrude Object to Floor.

Now go back to the object’s manag-

er, hide the Plan group, and unhide

the Left Elevation. Then with the

same way you’ve created the floor,

using snap to point, start building

your spline (fig15) (Remember to

snap to the inner corner and not the

outer one).As we did with the floor,

create an Extrude Object with all

values ZERO and place the spline in

it. Rename it Left Wall

Repeat the same thing to create the

rear wall, and the right elevation

(fig16 and fig.16a)) Now up to the

front wall. Enable the Plan group,

and the Front Elevation. Then draw

the spline using the 3d snap, and

perform an extrude on Y of 850.That

will get it exactly to its limit on the

front elevation. (fig17). Do the same

with the 2nd window (fig.18) Now

select the last 2 splines you’ve cre-

ated, copy paste it, and move them

on the Y axis to Y 2660 m (fig.19).

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Fig.12

Fig.13

Fig.14

Fig.15

Fig.16

Fig.16a

Fig.17

Fig.18

Perform an extrude of -425 (fig.20)

Now that we’ve got our windows

settled, let’s create the remaining

walls by drawing the splines on the

Plan, as we did previously, and

extrude with a value Y of 2660

(fig.21)

Now that we’ve built all our walls,

we just need to create our ceiling.

We can easily do this by creating a

spline, snapped to the four upper

corners of the elevations we did. So

make sure snap 3d is enabled, with

snap to point selected and draw

your line. (fig.22), then just drag it in

an Extrude Object with all values

ZERO. Rename it to Ceiling. Now all

our 3d Volume is finished (fig23)

The next step is to put some furni-

ture in. I’ve kept it quite minimal in

this tutorial, just to give a general

idea. Let’s start with the bed. Go to

the top view (F2), create a cube,

and enter the following values in its

properties: X 1920, Y 106.5 and Z

2130. Position it good in top view in

order to match the plan. Then go to

the Right View (F3) and fix its posi-

tion there as well (fig.24) Rename it

to Bed’s base. Now copy paste it

and change the Y value of the new

cube to 266 m. Enable fillet, with a

radius of 40 and a subdivision of 5.

Reposition it like we did with the

base. (fig.25) Now to make the

bed’s feet, copy paste the “Bed’s

base”, and change its values as fol-

lows: X 1920, Y 43 , Z 2130. Then

position it according to the plan, like

we did previously. Your bed is done.

Select all the components and put

them all under 1 group (alt + g).

Rename it to bed.

On with the night tables. Draw a

spline over the plan, using 3d snap

to point, then put it in an Extrude

Object with an Y value of 400

(fig.26) Repeat the same operation

for the left night table. Don’t forget

to rename it.

Same thing for the table, draw the

spline using snap, (don’t forget to

close the spline). Once your spline

is drawn move it up by 768 (Y value

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Fig.19

Fig.20

Fig.21

Fig.22

Fig.23

Fig.24

Fig.25

Fig.26

768) that will get it to its position

according to the elevation. Then

extrude it with an Y value of 80 m.

(fig.27 and 27a).

I’ve also added a Corbusier chair I

had, a mac I modeled fast, and a

small office chair in order to fill up

the room a bit. You can add any

object you might have.

Now that we’re basically done with

the modeling, let’s put on some tex-

tures… I’ve used some basic tex-

tures here. Dark wood for the night

tables, bright for the bed, a different

1 for the table. You can be quite free

with these. The important thing is to

get the right texture for the wall…

When you’re using radiosity, basical-

ly you’re bouncing the light all over

the room, and blending all colors…

which gives you the realistic aspect

you see in every day life… Now a

good trick to keep your walls white

and not that affected by the other

textures is to play with the illumina-

tion tab. I basically created a white

shader with a 100% brightness, and

in the illumination tab, increased the

Generate GI strength to 150 and

lower the saturation to 70, which will

keep the bright white. (fig.28)

Apply this material to all walls. As

for the floor material, I went for a

normal wood texture, just added a

bit of reflection and a slight bump.

You can play with these settings till

it suits the mood you want to show

in your project.

Give big importance to the

Illumination tab as it highly affects

the colors and diffusion of light in

your render.

1 last touch. In order to speed up

the rendering time I’ve added a

Compositing Tag to the Mac object

and to both the Chairs, and I have

unchecked the Seen by GI tab. This

will allow C4D to exclude these

objects while rendering. Now, after

setting the textures, we will set up

the light environment… To simulate

radiosity I went for 3 light sources…

The first is the sky… Create a sky,

then go to materials, make a new

one, uncheck the color tab and the

specular, enable just the illumination

and lower its value till u get a

blueish light color. This material will

simulate the sky light diffusion.

(fig.29) Then I added the Sun,

which is basically made of a distant

light, with Hard Shadows enabled,

and I lowered the intensity to 65%.

Place this light on the windows side,

quite far from the model. (fig30)

Rename the light to Sun.

The last source to add is an omni

light inside the house. That will help

you diffuse the light easier. Ill keep a

very low brightness here of 8% (this

value varies depending on what you

need, a dark atmosphere a bright…

etc …) I’ll also enable Soft

Shadows, to help add a realistic

look to the ambient.

Once you’ve created all these light

sources, group them together, and

rename the group: Ambient settings.

Now that we’ve set our light, let’s

create a couple of cameras to make

our shots. Create a Camera with tar-

get, position it as in (fig.31) and

give it a focal length of 18. This will

allow us to have a wide camera

angle, and will give more depth for

the room. These “cheating” tips will

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Fig.27

Fig.27a

Fig.28

Fig.29

Fig.30

help you get a nice view of your per-

spective. Once your camera is set,

go the Camera’s tab on your per-

spective view and switch from Editor

Camera to Scene Camera.

Position it till you get the desired

angle. (fig.32)

Now go to the Render Settings tab.

In the General tab, put antialiasing

to Best, this will allow us to have

clean sharp renders. Go to the

Output tab and select the desired

resolution, I went for an 800 by 600

pixels with a film format HDTV.

On with the Radiosity settings,

enable Radiosity (standard) and

leave it with the default settings for

a start. Finally, in the Options tab,

unselect the Auto Light tab.

You’re all set to make the first ren-

der. (fig.33) It took me 5:30 min to

render it on a P4. 3.2 Ghz, with 1

giga of ram.

Now, as you can see ,we have

some splotches on the corners…

this is normal. In order to get rid of

these you have to play around with

the min and max resolution values

in the radiosity tab. The default val-

ues are 3 and 70, make these set-

tings higher and test your renders till

you get the descent result :)

You can add a couple of cameras,

and render different views (fig33a).

You can see here different shots I

made of the room, some with addi-

tional objects (poster, printer, closet)

, some with minor changes such as

the table’s form or the window’s size

(fig.34.35.36)

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, in

another tutorial we will deal with a

more complex architecture, and see

an in depth view of how to manage

textures and lights!

Keep on Attacking!

-Bled

ArArcchitecturhitecture e TTutorial utorial By BlendBy Blend

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Fig.31

Fig.32

Fig.33

Fig.33a

Fig.34

Fig.35

Fig.36

On October 15/16, 2005 - MAXON

invited their users to Cologne,

Germany where the 1st MAXON

User meeting took place. A registra-

tion fee of 50? covered workshops,

project presentations, a catered

luncheon buffet both days and all

the non-alcoholic beverages one

could drink. (We did the alcoholized

meeting on Saturday and Sunday

evenings on our own around the

Cologne Dome- When we came

back to our hotel around 4 AM, we

started our laptops and did C4D

talk!

All registrants received an identity

card with their real name, forum

name and company. A cool idea, but

the execution could be improved.

While the MAXON logo was in large

bold type, the registrants name and

forum name were really hard to

read. This made it a bit difficult to

identify people with whom the only

contact you have ever had is on a

forum. Though, it all worked out in

the end.

On both days of the event, CINEMA

4D Workshops and Presentations

took place and were a great suc-

cess. There were a few difficulties in

the beginning, but MAXON made

corrections quickly. The first work-

shop was very crowded. People

were standing or sitting on the floor

next to the 20 laptops provided by

Intel. To make is possible for more

registrants to attend the workshops

comfortably, MAXON had to acquire

larger rooms. The BodyPaint work-

shop I joined was in a very crowded

little room and the instructor wasn’t

a CINEMA 4D user, so he wasn’t

able to provide answers to more in-

depth questions. MAXON reacted

fast and the following workshops

took place in larger rooms and were

done a few times a day. The tutors

(mostly maxon trainers) were really

good. All of the workshops covered

the basics and were interesting for

the new user or crossing over from

other applications. The project pre-

sentations took place in a big room

with 200 seats. These presentations

were really interesting for the more

advanced user, where our project

MAXON USER MEETING IN COLOGNEBy Mark Gmehling aka Macling

21

Inte

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w

related questions were answered.

The 3D-crowd was entertained by

some Speed challenges with differ-

ent topics, like shader development-

modeling- lighting- logo animation

etc. The 4 challengers workspaces

were beamed on the big screen. It

was a lot fun to watch their work-

flow. The speed modeling sessions

lasted 15 minutes and the crowd

was the judge. Lenno successfully

represented 3D Attack in the shader

development challenge and won a

handy holder for his desktop.

During the shader challenge, many

people gathered around Lenno to

see his work. This was a great

opportunity for us to give away 30

3D Attack Year One Collection CD’s.

We were delighted to find out that

about 90% of the users knew of 3D

Attack and subscribe to the maga-

zine. They love it!

All in all, the MAXON user meeting

was a great success! The CINEMA

4D Community consists of a 100%

friendly people. It was great to meet

so many 3D addicts.

It was especially fun to meet and

talk with old-virtual friends in real-

time. This is proof that we are not

alone in dreaming about splines or

thinking about poly count when we

look at a tree!

Here’s to waiting for the next User

meeting!

MAXON USER MEETING IN COLOGNEBy Mark Gmehling aka Macling

22

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Well, here we are, at the final part of

this tutorial. Start with the

Chainsaw-Part 2-Finished.c4d File

Modeling the ‘Pull Start’ Handle

This is a very simple object. It is T-

Shaped and very primitive. For this

object, we will simply start with a

cube and extrude faces until we

have the shape we want. I just

scaled the cube down and started at

the base, then extruded a bit, scaled

a bit, once the shape is roughed

out, drop the cube into the

HyperNURBS group and you can

rename it and add any additional

cuts you may need. (Image-01)

Modeling the Spark Plug Cap

The Spark Plug Cap (rubbery look-

ing thing with a wire leading out of it

on top the unit) This part is pretty

much the same modeling method as

the handle. Just start with a cube

and using the Extrude, Move, Scale

and Rotate tools, just box model

your object from there. (Image-02)

Modeling the Forward Handle

This is again, a very simple object,

but I will take you though it step by

step. Starting with a Cube, and

working in the Left Viewport, we will

rough out the shape of the handle.

Scale the cube down, then make it

editable (C) we will then extrude and

rotate the faces until you have

something looking like this. (Image-

03) Then we will switch to the top

viewport and scale the object along

the X-Axis until it lines up in the

underlay. Notice that there are holes

in the handle (check the reference

photography or the Top Viewport. To

get these holes, we need to create

some knife cuts at the edges of

them and then we will use the

bridge tool to create the holes.

Using the knife tool (either in Line

Mode or Plane Mode) make these

cuts in the top viewport to create the

geometry where we will use the

bridge tool. (Image-04) Now that we

have the grid laid out, we can select

the polygons where we want to

make the holes. (Image-05) And

bridge the polygons. Once that’s

done, I dropped it into the

HyperNURBS object and then I

looked at the reference photography

and I noticed that the handle tapers

a little towards the top, so I then

adjusted the shape by selecting the

points at the top corners of the

object and scaling them on the X-

Axis. Once that was done, I used

the knife tool in Loop Mode to hard-

en up the center area. (Notice the

extra edges running vertically along

the center of the object.(Image-06)

The final component of this part is

Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Part 3By Jamie Hamel - Smith

23

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Image 01

Image 02

Image 04

Image 05

Image 03

the bracket that holds it on, if you

switch to the Right Viewport, you

can clearly see the metal bracket

that this forward handle attaches to.

Create a New Polygon Object

(Objects > Polygon Object) and

using the create Polygon Tool (N-

Gons) trace the shape of the brack-

et. Afterwards, simply extrude it a bit

(with the ‘create caps’ option on)

and bevel the edges a bit.

A nice tip for this part is to select the

N-Gon on one side, then Ctrl-Click

the Edges Mode, that will convert

the Polygon Selection to an Edge

Selection and then you can bevel

the edges using the Bevel Tool.

(Image-07)

The Engine Cover

This part will be a HyperNURBS

Object that we will create by cutting

a cube using the knife until it fits our

needs. Start by creating a cube,

scaling it down to fit the area we are

working with (orange engine cover)

and making it editable, (Image-08)

(1) we will want to delete 2 faces

from the cube. The Front face and

the bottom face. (2) After doing that,

go to the top viewport (F2) and posi-

tion the left and right faces so that

they encompass the cover. (3) Add

Knife cuts (line mode) where the

details are in the cover, remember

to cut straight through the object

when doing so. Do this from the Top

Viewport and then from the Left

Viewport. Move the points so they

follow the contour of the orange

cover and then Drop the object into

your HyperNURBS group. (4) Once

you have the cover taking the shape

of the orange cover, and it’s in the

HyperNURBS Object, you may

notice that the top is too smooth and

curved. We need to add 2 more

knife cuts. One on each edge,

switch to the Perspective Viewport

(F1) and using the Knife tool in loop

mode, make these cuts. This will

harden up the edges to give a better

representation of the way it really

looks. (5) Once you have done that,

you can check the Left and Right

View ports, you need to move the

lower points up to meet the curve of

the cover. (6) You may see some

areas where you need to insert

additional knife cuts to get more

points and edges to make the

curves on the sides fit better, just

remember that when making these

cuts you must cut straight through

the object. Loop Mode is very effec-

tive at doing this. Once you are

done cutting it up, you will need to

make some additional adjustments

so your other objects don’t intersect

it too much.

Muffler (exhaust)

This object will once again be a

HyperNURBS Object. We will start

with a cube then scale it down and

make it editable. Position it near the

exhaust area. And drop it you’re

your HyperNURBS Group. Now I

can’t really see the exhaust too well

from the photos, so we are going to

model it a little rough. It looks like a

capsule shaped housing with some

fins on the top. Just scale and posi-

tion the cube so that it fits and add

knife cuts in the general areas that I

did. By now this should just be 2nd

nature, so just run with it. (Image-

09)

For the fins, I just used some cubes

and copied and rotated them so

they looked ok. I don’t want to get

too into modeling this part because

Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Part 3By Jamie Hamel - Smith

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Image 06

Image 07

Image 09

Image 08

it’s sort of sketchy from the photos.

You do get a nice view of it from the

Left Viewport however. As you can

see, I also rounded the edges of the

fins. (Image-10)

That’s enough detail for the body of

the chainsaw, this tutorial would be

way too long if we got into all the

details and this is already the 3rd

part, I’m sure it’s beginning to get tir-

ing. Let’s finish up with the rig for

the chain on the blade. Now it would

be a whole extra tutorial if I were to

break down the XPresso we are

about to use, so instead I have cre-

ated an XPresso that I use when I

am doing motorcycle chains and I

will teach you how to merge it into

your file and use it correctly.

The Chain!

Now, to start off, open the supplied

file called Chain-XPresso.c4d this is

a file that I have created to make

the implementation of the chain as

easy as possible. It’s an Expression

that I created a while ago to animate

motorcycle chains, we will modify

this file and use it to create the

chain for our chainsaw. It consists of

a spline that the links follow and an

inner link, also an outer link. Below

these are instances of the links.

They all have ‘Align to Spline’ Tags

on them. The expression controls

the align to spline values and as

more copies of the instances are

created, more links are evenly dis-

tributed along the spline. So, let’s do

it! Merge the Chain-XPresso.c4d file

with your chainsaw file from the File

Menu, Merge command. Once it

appears, go to the Left Viewport and

select the Spline Object, choose the

points tool, and select all of the

points, then delete them. We are

going to draw a new spline that fol-

lows the contour of the chainsaw

blade. Create a new spline by Ctrl-

Clicking in the Left Viewport and

trace the shape of the blade. Now,

we could just create a whole new

spline, but that would mean fiddling

with the XPresso tag and I’m sure

we don’t want to do that. Once you

have completed drawing the spline

with its new shape, switch to the top

view and line it up with the blade.

Now, in order to make sure that all

of the links are pointing in the right

direction at all times and that they

don’t flip around as their rotation

changes, we need to add a Rail

Spline to the Align to Spline Tags.

Copy the Spline in the Object

Manager by Ctrl-Dragging it and

once you have copy, delete the chil-

dren and the XPresso Tag from it.

This will be our Rail Spline, so you

can rename it if you like. Now, you

need to move the Rail Spline along

the Z-Axis as shown. (Image-10)

Now, the rail spline will ensure that

the X-Axis of all the links always

point towards it. To make this the rail

spline, we need to select all of the

Align to Spline Tags and drag the

Rail Spline into the Rail Path Field.

(Image-11) Once this is done, we

can create more copies of the link

instances. Select the 4 link

instances and Ctrl-Drag them to

copy them, make sure that they

alternate, inner link, outer link, inner

link, outer link etc… keep copying

them until the entire spline is filled

up with links. Switch to the Left view

and zoom in on an area of chain

and you will see when they line up.

(Image-12)

Once you have done all that, you

can then edit the 2 original links to

create any type of teeth on the

chainsaw blade that you like. Get a

little creative with it, remember since

the links are instances, once you

edit the 2 original links, all the oth-

ers will show the changes too! You

can even add additional objects as

children of the links and they will

also copy with the instances!

Well, that’s it for my Chainsaw

Tutorial, so as always, Keep on

Attacking, and if I have missed any-

thing, just contact me on the forum

or create a new thread about the

issue. Bye Bye - Jamie

Modeling and Texturing a Chainsaw Part 3By Jam Hamel - Smith

25

Tuto

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Image 10

Image 11

Image 11

Vital Disclosure

BodyPaint 2- Insider Secrets

Volume One

The expectation on this DVD was

really high considering the guys who

wrote the BodyPaint manual devel-

oped it. The DVD was offered at a

high discount for early purchase.

Many people took advantage of the

early purchase, but the Vital team

had a hard start with their first

Training-DVD-publication. Some of

you may have heard about some

shipping trouble and resolution criti-

cism. To make it short: The Vital

Distraction team took some harsh

feedback, but served their clients

well in the end.

At their own cost, Vital shipped a

second highres-version to all their

clients. They were finally able to get

some great feedback (well

deserved) about the content!

This is a double DVD package. DVD

1 contains the workshop video files

and the needed codec. DVD 2 con-

tains all project files. Cinema

Release 9 is used, but all steps are

easy to follow with older versions as

well.

So, now let’s talk about the content:

The DVD is separated into three

parts. Let’s take a short tour through

the chapters:

Chapter One (Interface):

UV’s in general: Explains what UV’s

are and why it is needed to unwrap

meshes to avoid overlapping when it

comes to paint detailed texture

maps.

Close look at the interface:

Walkthrough the material-, layer-,

color-, attributes, uv- manager, color

and brush presets that are used in

the later project, furthermore, a look

into customizing the layout.

Chapter Two (UV’s):

Using the set-up wizard: This allows

you to map lots of meshes simulta-

neously. Interesting for more

advanced BP Users is the workflow

that first UV-sets up all meshes and

later goes back and increases the

texture maps size using the setup

wizard.

Simple Interactive Mapping:

This section is dedicated to optimiz-

ing the wizards UV layout using the

interactive mapping method and

stitching the UV’s together.

RelaxUV/ Magnet Tool:

The relax UV/magnet tool comes

into play when optimizing complicat-

ed areas of a head, for example, the

ear and eye area or to get an even

interpolation of the UV’s here and

there.

Complex Mapping:

The complex mapping chapter is

dedicated to the mapping of the

characters cloth, using different

interactive projection types. Team

Vital pays attention to some needs

for UV mapping cloth to maintain an

even fabric flow.

UV Terrace:

Team Vital demonstrates the UV ter-

race command to automatically

place some UV’s you might have

missed during your setup to their

right places in your UV map. One

more timesaving little helper that

advanced BP users may have not

realized.

Chapter Three (Painting):

Photoshop:

Team Vital shows the needed steps

for creating tileable textures using

Photoshop for later usage in BP.

Texturepaint:

Shown here is the usage of the

Photoshop created tileable texture

inside BP.

Resizing Textures:

The setup wizard in material mode

is used to resize the UV maps/tex-

tures to sensible resolutions.

Creating Layers Text Tools:

Shows the steps to create the need-

ed layers/material channels to work

with.

Layer Masks/ Blending Layers:

This is a walkthrough of BodyPaint's

Layer Manager and its features,

including working with alpha layers.

Projection Painting:

Shows the power of BP’s Projection

Painting feature that allows you to

roughly texture a head using some

photos.

Cloning:

Demonstrating ways on how to opti-

mize photographed material for tex-

turing the project-characters head.

Advanced Projection Painting:

Team vital shows ways to detail the

texture of the project characters

cloth using photographed/scanned

textures that are tweaked inside

Photoshop.

Accurate Texture Painting:

Deals with some copy/paste bitmap

methods to detail the characters

cloth further. In addition to that, BP’s

clone tool and brush tool possibili-

ties are featured here.

Multichannel vs. Layers:

26

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VITAL DISCLOSURE - BP2 Insider SecretsBy Mark Gmehling

Team vital shows the fast forward

method to create bump and diffusion

channels out of the painted col-

ormap featuring some of BP’s inbuilt

filters.

Multichannel Painting:

Here is the usage of custom brush-

es and BP’s powerful multi-channel

painting feature to push the project

characters texture map forward and

adjust the results by using the layers

blend mode options.

Burn and Dodge:

This chapter is dedicated to the burn

and dodge tool most of you might

know from Photoshop. Team Vital

details the created textures and

lightens/darkens specific areas here.

Store and Remap UV:

Here Team Vital shares some tricks

they explored and show how to

adjust UV’s in an already painted

texture without having to repaint the

adjusted areas. This is one more

chapter that may be interesting for

the advanced user.

All of these topics are covered in

about two hours. I would say the

motto of this BP tutorial is: “quick

and efficient”. Team Vital didn’t want

to bore the audience ;)

Team Vital demonstrate the fast-for-

ward method to UV-Setup and tex-

turing a whole character, including

cloth, as fast as it is possible. The

English is good and understandable,

even for non-native-English-speak-

ers. All steps are well explained, as

you would expect from the guys that

wrote the BP manual.

The “Insider Secrets” DVD is a good

start for people who are experi-

enced with modeling, but new to

BodyPaint, I think more advanced

BodyPaint users might get some

additional knowledge here and

there, but most of the content cov-

ered is quite common texturing

work. Team Vital demonstrates the

fast-straight-forward method for tex-

turing using photographed material

and optimizing it to fit the needs for

usage in BP.

I hope the next releases will have a

better functionality of the embedded

video window. I had problems with

pausing the video and working with

the Alt-Tab Shortcut to bring CINE-

MA in the foreground.

The Video window is always in fore-

ground, thus making it difficult to

switch between application and

video. The price of 85 US dollars

seems quite high compared to the

playtime of the DVD.

Due to the price and playtime rela-

tion, I give this training DVD a 4 out

of 5 Attack Points. Please don’t mis-

understand this: The given informa-

tion is topnotch- all is well

explained- but I think they could

have recorded one more hour show-

ing some more into-depth tricks for

the more advanced user, further-

more the “workspace-behavior” is

improvable.

Visit HYPERLINK

"http://www.Vitaldistraction.com"

www.Vitaldistraction.com to have a

closer look at the coming C4D-

Training DVD’s. (In the meantime a

teaser clip, some screenshots and a

chapter teaser are available)

Team Vital is now shipping their

Cloth Training DVD ($85 including

shipping and handling) and are

working on a third DVD, of which

the topic is yet to be announced.

A bundle containing the BodyPaint

and Cloth DVDs is offered for $129.

27

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VITAL DISCLOSURE - BP2 Insider SecretsBy Mark Gmehling

Sound driven animation

There seems to be alot of interest in

sound driven animation, and it's fair-

ly easy to do with the XPresso

sound node.

The sound node has a couple of

main functions. The first of which is

the ability to programatically play

sounds in the editor, for example,

when two objects collide. This is

pretty useless in my opinion, as

there is no way to render out

the sound. The real usefulness of

the sound node lies in it's ability to

output the amplitude (volume) of a

sound file for any given sample or

time. An important thing to remem-

ber is that the sound node can only

use uncompressed WAV or AIFF

sound files. MP3s will not work.

Ok, let's try it out. Start with an

empty scene and create a primitive

sphere. Right click on the sphere in

the Object Manager and add an

XPresso tag. The XPresso Editor

should open automatically. Now

drag the sphere from the Object

Manager into the XPresso Editor.

This will create an Object node that

is linked to your sphere. Now create

a sound node by right-clicking an

empty part of the XPresso Editor

and choosing "New Node-

>XPresso->General->Sound" from

the popup menu.[pic001]

Click on the newly created sound

node and take a look at the

Attributes Manager. You should

have two fields: Filename and

Probe. Click the button next to the

Filename field and select a WAV or

AIFF file. Now create an input port

on the sound node for Time.

[pic002] Create a Time node with

the popup menu "New Node-

>XPresso->General->Time". Wire

the Time node's Time output to the

Sound node's Time input. This tells

the Sound node to use the docu-

ment's time for the position of the

sound file. Now on the Sound node,

create an output port for Left. In this

example we will only use the left

channel of the sound file, as we will

only be driving one parameter. With

some simple math, we could use

both channels for this (add left and

right together and divide by 2), but

for the sake of simplicity we will

stick to the left channel only.

The output for a single sample can

range from about -32767 to 32767.

So how do we make this usable?

With the help of the RangeMapper

node. The RangeMapper takes a

number in the input range (in this

case -32767 to 32767) and maps

the resulting number on another

range of numbers. So now add a

RangeMapper node from the popup

menu "New Node->XPresso-

>Calculate->RangeMapper". Click

on the RangeMapper node and in

the Attributes Manager set the "Input

Lower" field to -32767 and the "Input

Upper" field to 32767. Then set the

"Output Lower" field to 10 and the

"Output Upper" field to 200. [pic003]

Wire the Left output port of the

Sound node to the Input port of the

RangeMapper node. On the Sphere

node, create an input port for Object

Properties->Radius and wire the

Output port of the RangeMapper

node to the Radius input port on the

Sphere node.

Now play the animation in the editor.

The sphere should be changing size

based on the amplitude of the left

channel of the Sound node. To

adjust how the sphere's radius

responds, tweak the RangeMapper's

"Input Lower" and "Input Upper" val-

ues.

This method can be used to animate

almost anything, but it's just a start.

So experiment, get creative, have

fun and Keep on Attacking!

-Chris

Sound Driven AnimationBy Chris Montesano

28

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Image 001

Image 002

Image 002

INTRODUCTION INTO Z-BRUSH

PART II (by Mark Gmehling)

Basic texturing fast forward method

Hi there Attackers- In the september

issue the first ZBrush introduction

tutorial was about creating tileable

textures within ZBrush. In this sec-

ond part I want to show one possi-

bility to basically texture a (C4D)

mesh using photos or self made

files within ZBrush.

In the ZBrush tutorial folder you’ll

find the C4D-scenefile pear.c4d, that

is a quickly blocked out mesh to

show you the basic steps of quickly

creating a base texture.

If you’re interested in its modeling

process, check out the file

blockingoutthepear.swf that is found

in the tutorial folder too.(I used the

extrude and extrude inner command

by shortcut (Extrude=D and extrude

inner=I)) In the end I exported the

pear mesh as an .obj (Wavefront)

file for further use in ZBrush- this obj

file is also found in the tuts folder.

The second video file,

ZBrushtexturing.swf, is about apply-

ing/projecting basic texture onto the

model- a method you may know

from BodyPaint. But before doing

that, I adjust the imported mesh’s

UV’s to avoid overlapping- this is

done by a few clicks inside ZBrush:

To import the tool I go to the Tool

Palette – Import- Select the obj. file

you wish to import. Draw it onto the

canvas and push the edit button or

just use the shortcut T.

To bring the UV’s in order, I go to

the Tools Tab- Texture field and click

the Check UV button: As expected,

the UV’s behave ugly- the overlap-

ping areas are indicated with red

color- the mesh will not be paintable

like this. So I decide to use the AUV

Tiling, which means ZBrush lays out

the UV’s automatically in checker-

board style- so each UV has the

same size- The only disadvantage

of this layout is that you’ll not be

able to paint further in another 2d

paint application than zBrush,

because the texture maps UV’s are

not in continuos order.

Only thing to do is click the AUV Tile

button and then the UV to texture

button- voila- nice isn’t it? To be

honest I don’t care about only being

able to paint in ZBrush because its

2D possibilities are that powerful.

ZBrush automatically creates a

default color texture to demonstrate

the UV layout. If you like, go to the

Tools Texture palette again and

check the UV’s again by clicking the

check UV’s button: No red there- all

is in best order ?

As I haven’t assigned the desired

texture size/resolution, I go to the

Texture tab and fill the size fields

with the pixel proportions I want to

create- I choose a 1024x1024 pixel

size and press new- a new white

texture is added in the texture

palette and is automatically applied

to the pear mesh.

At this point I end the edit mode by

clicking T again and clean the can-

vas Ctrl-N. No fear- The UV edited

mesh(ZBrush calls it a tool) remains

in the tool palette ;)

Now I import a self made texture(not

quite sense making in this case) by

going to the texture palette- import.

The imported texture is active auto-

matically- In the same palette I click

the Crop and Fill button to fill the

canvas with the active texture-

ZBrush checks if you really want to

adjust the canvas size because the

imported texture is bigger than the

current canvas size- I click “ok” and

the canvas is adjusted and filled. To

be able to see the whole canvas I

zoom out using the +- Keys or the

button on the right edge.

Now I select the pear tool from the

tool palette, draw it on the canvas

and go in edit mode as before (T)-

The tool automatically uses the

active texture- doesn’t matter at the

moment. I drag the mouse outside

of the geometry holding the shift key

to snap to an orthogonal view.

To project the background onto the

mesh I just go to the Transform

palette and use the 3d copy com-

mand- voila -our background is pro-

jected onto the pear mesh. I rotate

my mesh again- click 3d copy and

repeat this two more times to get

the whole pear hairy ;). Of course

you can do this from perspective

angles, but at this time I only want

to basically fill the mesh. You’ll

notice that the texture is updating

automatically after each projection.

By clicking Ctrl-N I clear the back-

ground that isn’t needed anymore.

Now I want to get rid of the seams

that came up at the tangential areas

during projection: I rotate my mesh

to get a good view on the problem

areas and go to the projection mas-

ter(G) –The default settings is ok for

now, as I only want to paint color so

I hit the drop now button. In the tool

palette I choose the clone Brush

that behaves like Photoshop's

Stamp tool most of you may know.

Before painting, I disable the Zadd

channel because I only want to

affect the colors of the texture. In

contrast to Photoshop, Ctrl-clicking

in an area defines the texture you

want to clone to another area. To

rotate the pear mesh I hit G again

ZBrZBrush - Intrush - Introduction Poduction Parar t 2t 2By MarBy Mark Gmehlingk Gmehling

29

Tuto

rial

and click the Pick up button. Then I

rotate to the next ugly seam, hit G

and drop the mesh to be able to use

the clone brush in projection master

mode- I repeat these steps till the

texture appears seamless.

To export the texture as colormap I

just go to texture- export and save it

as a psd file, for example.

Furthermore, I export the UV_edited

pear mesh by going to tool export

and save it as an obj again to open

it in C4D.

Back in C4D I open the just export-

ed UV edited pear mesh, and in its

materials color channel I load the

exported ZBrush Texture and won-

der why it’s looking odd when I ren-

der ;)- I just have to select the mate-

rial tag in the object manager and

go to Texture- flip vertical and all is

in order. Not a artistical render

indeed, but I think it shows one

technical approach to texture a

mesh fast and efficient. It was not a

sense making example, but working

with higher resolution photos to

basic texture a head is an interest-

ing way to texture fast forward.

I hope this was interesting and we

see you on board! Keep attacking!

Mark Gmehling

ZBrZBrush - Intrush - Introduction Poduction Parar t 2t 2By MarBy Mark Gmehlingk Gmehling

30

Tuto

rial

Is this the end of days? Have we

finally reached our destiny? It all

started in Chesaning, Michigan

where several UFO sightings have

caused car accidents and at least

one elderly individual was brought to

a local emergency room heart attack

symptoms. It’s a miracle that no

one has been severely injured. We

have managed to talk to 86-year-old

Booh Gahontas, who luckily sur-

vived his heart attack.

3D Attack: Mr. Gahontas, would

you please describe what you have

seen?

Mr. G.: Well boy! I haven't seen nut-

tin cause it was dark outside and in

the house. And outta nowhere

came that strange sound that woke

me outta a dead sleep. First thing I

saw was these strange lights. First

thought is that it was the sewing

machine. My wife, ya know, she’s

always forgettin to turn that thing

down. She's been a seamstress for

her whole life. Look at my trousers,

she made em, she's very gifted with

that. Even the neighbors come here

and ask for assistance with their

clothes. Even Mr. Carpenter, our

blacksmith, boy you should take a

look at our garden gates, it's just,

well, anyway, he created it and he

asked if mama couldn't...

3D Attack: Well, that's very interest-

ing, but what did you see?

Mr. G.: I have been watching Stan,

umm, Mr. blacksmith. I saw how he

made my garden gates. Boy I tell

you, he is one hell of a blacksmith!

3D Attack: Mr. Gahontas, did you

see a UFO?

Mr. G.: In Mr. Carpenter's garage?

Boy, you are talking nonsense! How

would a UFO get in his garage?

He’s not that talented! Let me tell

you, your shirt could use some

refinement from my wife! You know,

she's a very gifted seamstress!

3D Attack: Did you see a UFO?

Mr. G.: Let me just standup and

show you where I saw it. My old

bones ain't what they used to be.

When I was young, I was good at

sports. I was a good dancer and

boy... masses of girls were after me.

But those days are gone for a long

time now. Over there above the

hills, right where the tree is. No, not

this tree, but that one.

3D Attack: The left one?

Mr. G.: No, the right one!

3D Attack: What did the UFO look

like?

Mr. G.: A lampshade!

3D Attack: It looked like a lamp-

shade?

Mr. G.: I wonder how my lampshade

got here into my garden? Let me

just bring it back into the house.

This must have been the work of my

dog Dottie. She's one nasty little

beast, but I really love this honey.

Mama didn't like her, but I did, and

always will do. So, is that all you

wanted to know about the UFO?

Boy it’s getting late and mostly they

come at high noon. No wonder I

can’t show you one right now. You

want some whiskey? Boy I forgot,

not while yer on duty, right? That's

the youth of these days. Rude

behavior wherever ya go. And it's

getting worse.

At that point we stopped the inter-

view. We really weren’t getting far

with Mr. Gahontas. Fortunately,

many of our readers have provided

us with evidence that humanity is

facing its biggest challenge. It has

yet to be determined whether the

visitors from the sky are friend or

foe. Don’t push the possible reality

of Visitors from space to the back of

your mind. It’s far too important to

ignore.

Mr. Rorki was the first to report a

sighting in Scotland. He had big

trouble taking that photo due to

brain waves from space. They made

him want to paint the backyard of

his office with pink stars.(Pic01)

Flying barrels seem to be the next

step up from flying saucers. This

snapshot was taken by Elmata. The

aliens even waited while the street-

lights were red. (Pic02)

Sudden Attack - A UFO ReportBy Georg Niedermeier aka sad

31

Report

Image 01

Image 02

The next photograph shows a cru-

cial step in the beginning of the

invasion on earth. Is it by chance

that it's another sighting in Great

Britain area?(Pic03)

Obviously the aliens are not only

interested in Europe.(Pic04)

Bluepulse took an amazing picture

which shows the first meeting

between humans and aliens. The

child spent about two hours in com-

munication with the aliens.

Afterward, the kid fluently spoke

French and Russian.(Pic05)

Nils Meier from Germany has an

interesting theory about this picture.

He thinks that most of the tourists in

Berlin must be aliens. The day he

took that photograph he wanted to

go through the Brandenburg Gates

and ran into an obstacle that he

couldn't see. After some strange

noises the UFO became visible.

Something in that spaceship must

have been broken during the inci-

dent. Do the aliens posses a work-

ing cloaking technology?(Pic06)

Paul Hankin took a spectacular pic-

ture right at Big Ben. At the very

moment of the flyby, Big Ben started

playing its well-known melody -

backwards. The next time the

melody played, everything was

working normally.(Pic07)

Here is evidence that the aliens are

not quite talented with steering their

machines. Obviously the alien

wanted to park in front of the wall,

but it didn't include the wind in its

calculations, therefore it parked in

the wall.(Pic08)

More evidence that most aliens are

not very good at flying their flying

saucers. Silversurfer took a snap-

shot of an alien ship crashing.

(Pic09)

Sudden Attack - A UFO ReportBy Georg Niedermeier aka sad

32

Report

Image 03

Image 04

Image 05

Image 06

Image 07

Image 08

Image 09

One of our top-secret agents, Mr.

PVP sent us another great photo-

graph which portrays the aliens

interest in historical buildings.

(Pic10)

Nutriman was taken by the aliens.

They wanted to learn all they could

about skiing and winter. He had an

interesting conversation with them,

though he didn't understand their

native language. It seems that they

have been talking to him using PSI.

Unfortunately the ship contained no

wc, and due to the fact they fed him

tons of Humpclicktacktack and

about 25 glasses of fake lemonade

called Tyloclickmockpick, which tast-

ed like molten paper, he had to

leave due to human necessity.

(Pic11) Here's another interesting

picture taken by Greg Brotherton

and Ralf Leeb. We are happy they

were able to film that situation with

their DV-Cam.(Pic12)Pixelstone

made another sighting in Great

Britain. Hundreds of curious people

have come to see the source of

some strange music that is impossi-

ble to describe. We can only try to

word what he has listened to: ”It

sounded like a helicopter and a car

having an argument, and a little cat

trying to arbitrate while green pecu-

liar images run for cover under a

shower”. (Pic13) Mr. Raid from

Germany didn't follow the mass

panic in Berlin. He remained calm

and took this picture. Mrs. Merkel

and Mr. Schaeuble, alias “rock-and-

roll” greeted the visitors and invited

them to a cup of coffee.

Unfortunately, the aliens don't drink

coffee because it's toxic to their bod-

ies, so they made up some excuses

and ran ...err... flew away.(Pic14)

Smokey43 took a quick snapshot of

a high-speed flying saucer.(Pic15)

So if you ever see a UFO or an

alien, please don't run away, but

take a photograph! We have to

research whether or not the aliens

are a threat to humanity. Thus far

we’ve come to the conclusion that

they are here to offer friendship. We

want to believe! Obviously the

above article is fictitious. The

images in the article were created

by some of the wonderful members

on our CINEMA 4D discussion

forum at www.3dattack.net during

our most recent Sudden Attack.

What is a Sudden Attack? Every

once in a while (suddenly) we will

throw up a mini competition where

the entrants are given a few basic

rules and theme with the opportunity

to win some great prizes.

During this Sudden Attack the

entrants modeled UFO’s and made

some very nice compositions. We

wanted to include all of the great

images, but there were so many

entrants in this Sudden Attack we

just didn’t have the space. Take a

look here:

http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showt

hread.php?t=3721.

Be sure to keep an eye on the WIP

forum at 3dattack.net. Another

SUDDEN ATTACK is sure to pop up

soon, where you will have the

opportunity to show off your skills,

learn and win some great prizes.

Feel free to join any running Sudden

Attacks as well.

Sudden Attack - A UFO ReportBy Georg Niedermeier aka sad

33

Report

Image 10

Image 11

Image 12

Image 13

Image 14

Image 15

This is a tutorial done by one of our

Sudden Attack “UFO” guys. It is

more a picture tutorial than text

based. The tutorial will give you

some tips and tricks on “composit-

ing” with CINEMA 4D and

Photoshop. Please also visit the

forum and have a look at the entries

in our “UFO” Sudden Attack!

http://www.3dattack.net/forum/showt

hread.php?t=3721

Here we go!

Compositing Tutorial - A WalkthroughBy Jeff Hogan

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Compositing Tutorial - A walkthroughBy Jeff Hogan

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3

I was born in Berlin - East Germany on

December the 12th in 1973. I had a

happy childhood and was always inter-

ested in painting, science and music. It

was hard to get a place of study in East

Germany, so I became an electrician (it

was a good paying job though).

Meanwhile, East and West Germany

were re-united again and I was able to

get my first computer, a C64. Then fol-

lowed by several AMIGAs. I started to

learn coding in Assembler and made

some of my first graphic demos, not

really exciting things :) At this time I got

interested in CG and began using some

of the classic 3D applications on the

AMIGA. For example, Reflections, Real

3D and also CINEMA 4D (I believe it

was version 2.5). At this time computers

were slow and I lost interest in 3D.

When I got my first PC I started with 3D

Artist SpotlightMatthias Bober aka “Bobtronic”

Spotl

ight

Name: Matthias Bober

Age: soon 32

Country: Germany

Software: CINEMA 4D 9.5, Silo,

Paintshop

Website: http://www.bobtronic.de

Favorite resources on the web:

3dattack, cgtalk, c4dportal, silo forum

again using the program Imagine. Then

came the Open Source boom and I

started using Wings3D and Blender. For

the first time I was really able to make

things how I wanted them. Some years

ago MAXON released CINEMA 4D CE+,

which was a great chance to get an

awesome program for little money. Since

then I’ve used CINEMA for all my 3D

works. In addition to CINEMA I use Silo,

which, in my opinion, is a great modeling

application. I’ve always enjoyed creating

Characters. It gives me great satisfac-

tion to bring something to life. I admire

the human body and try always to cap-

ture the beauty of it. Maybe that’s the

36

3

Artist SpotlightMatthias Bober aka “Bobtronic”

Spotl

ight

37

reason I can't make horrible monsters :)

Another thing I really enjoy is coding

plug-ins. CINEMA's SDK is very power-

ful and easy to use for someone with a

bit coding knowledge. I like to experi-

ment with shading, that’s why most of

my plug-ins are shaders. It is also a nice

feeling to make other users happy with

my plug-ins. It's my way of giving some-

thing back to CINEMA's community

which, in general, is very helpful and

friendly.

In the Spring of this year I was asked by

MAXON to become beta tester, which of

course I gladly accepted. I will be

always grateful for this. For the future I

would like to make my living doing 3D.

Here and there I’ve done some smaller

jobs. Here’s to hoping!

http://3dattack.net/shop/index.php?plugin=7

Hi all. Here’s a little tutorial that will

help you simulate hair or grass

using Deep Instant Tree:

"http://www.dpit2.de/"

http://www.dpit2.de/

The version used is the 2.5.

Well, before we get started, here’s a

little “tour” of the different functions

that we are going to use.

Plantage

Open CINEMA 4D and run the plug-

in Deep Instant Tree. We’re going to

use the ‘Plantage’ object.

It will help us create more or less

splines ( or polys) onto an already

existing object.

Create a »planar object » and

make it editable. Put it in the ‘

plantage’ (make it a child) object

and you will see that splines are

automatically created!(pic-003)

Choose the ‘plantage’ object in the

object manager , several setup tabs

are available. (pic-004)

In the tab shown above, we can see

several options. Let’s explain some

of these.

Render only:

This option is going to help you in

case you have alot of objects in

your viewport/render.

Load h.dept.settings:

Allows you to load pre-made setups.

Non destructive:

Allows you to display/disable the

supporting object (the planar object).

Random: Allows to random the

position of splines on our plane

object.

As mentioned above, we can pro-

duce splines or polys. This is made

possible through the ‘mode function’

which allows you to choose one of

the two. You should use the spline

mode by default (we’ll go into detail

later on how to make them visible in

your final rendering/viewport )

Don’t change the “View type” let it

be in default mode (unlimited)

Interpolation:

Allows you to choose between 3

modes:

None: Splines keep their original

aspect

Natural: Splines will be curved with

rounded angle

Uniform: Splines will be curved with

sharper angles. Intermediate points

will be placed equally along the

spline.

Intermediate points:

Allows to choose the level of subdi-

vision..

Polygon Selection:

Allows to create splines on a selec-

tion (in our case of our planar

object).

For example:

Select some polygons of your planar

object (in poly mode) then in the

selection menu choose ‘set selec-

tion’ (Pic-005)

A new tag appears next to our pla-

nar object, name it ‘01’

(Pic-006 pic-007)

Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member

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Pic003

Pic004

Pic005

Let’s get back to our ‘plantage

object’ and put our selection tag

in the ‘polygon selection’ option

(pic-008)

As you can see, splines are only ON

our selection (pic-009).

Before we continue, erase the

selection tag.

Density:

This function allow you to setup the

density of splines on our ‘planar

object’ (pict-010)

Density editor :

Density render :

Those functions will allow you to set

the density for your viewport/editor

or final rendering. The smaller the

value the more the density will be.

To go further, we have to choose

between 2 modes to set the density

(pict-011)

The density map mode:

Allows you to random the density

according to a vertex map.

Example:

Choose the planar object, switch to

point mode, and with the live selec-

tion tool paint a point selection (the

vertex painting selection must be set

to 100 (or else) (pict-012)

A vertex map tag appears next to

your object in your object manager,

name it “density” and put it in the

density map option. (pic013 to 015)

Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member

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Pic006

Pic007

Pic008

Pic009

Pic010

Pic011

Pic012

Pic013

Pic014

Pic015

You can see that the density of

splines is much higher where paint-

ed areas are at 100.

(pict-016a)

Great, now erase the vertex map

tag and lets have a look at the ‘dis-

tance mode’.

Distance:

Allows to set up the density depend-

ing on other objects.

Example:

Set the start distance option on 0

and the end option on 100.

Create a simple sphere and put it in

the object option.(pic-017)

Nothing happens…

Set the start distance option on 90

(pict-018 pict-019)

As you can see, the spline density

where our sphere is located is a lot

higher now.

If you set the density min map

option at 2, the density around the

sphere will be even higher. Put that

value to 50 and there will be no

more splines around the sphere (

that option is also working with the

density map mode).

Ok, erase the sphere and lets get to

the appearance tab. (pic-020)

The appearance tab:

Distance variation:

Allows us to smooth our splines giv-

ing them shapes more random. If

you increase the value, here’s what

you’ll get: (pic-021)

Set the “section editor” value option

on 13 (splines will be rounder), set

this value also in the “render sec-

tion” option to get the same result in

your final rendering (pict-022)

Length:

Set’s the length of our splines

Length map:

Allows to random the length of the

spline by painting a vertex map on a

planar object.

Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member

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Pic016a

Pic017

Pic018

Pic019

Pic020

Pic021

Pic022

Example:

Take the planar object and get into

point mode. With the live selection

tool, select your vertex map

(strength at 100) and the vertex

painting option set. (pic-023)

A vertex map is created, name it

“length” and put it in the option

‘length’ . (pic-024 pic-025)

Set the option length to 100 and the

length map to 10. Observe the result

(pic026)

Length variation:

Allows you to random the spline

length.

Well, let’s erase the vertex map tag

and go to ‘alignment. tab’

Alignment:

That tab allows us to set up the

gravity and direction of our splines.

With the setup shown below, you

should obtain this (pict027-028)

That’s all!

Now, it will be interesting to check

our splines/grass rendered. To do

so, we are going to use another

instant tree object, the: “plantvolume

object”

(pict-028)

Plantvolume

This object will allow us to “thicken”

our splines.(Pict-029)

I’ll let you explore the different

parameters as they are really basic.

Put the plantage object in the plant

volume object. Your spline will get «

thickness» and will be visible in

your render/rendering. Now is the

right time to “render” and should

look pretty similar to the picture

shown above.

Thanks and Keep on Attacking!

Using DPit to Create GrassCreated by a “Bubbles4d” member

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Pic023

Pic024

Pic025

Pic026

Pic028

Pic027

Pic028

Pic029

PLUGIN REVIEW: SplineTools

(By Gary Zullo aka Mr. Pixar)

Hello again my fellow 3D

Attackers!!! Here we go with another

review for your reading pleasure.

This time I am going to review

Renato Tarabella’s latest plugin

“SplineTools” which we’ll refer to

as SpT for the rest of the review.

As we’ve come to expect with all of

Renato’s plugins SpT offers tremen-

dous value primarily in the area of

workflow. As I’ve come to know the

man behind the plugins (having had

the pleasure of reviewing several of

them), I’ve come to know that every

one of Renato’s plugins is born out

of a single reason. First and fore-

most it’s workflow-workflow-work-

flow. Renato typically develops his

plugins to ease the shear amount of

work _he_ has to do related to mod-

eling and animations. This is simply

another tool in his toolbox; and now

ours as well. Thankfully Renato

sees enough value in his work to

share with the rest of us mere mor-

tals ?

SpT itself is surprisingly straight-for-

ward to use considering the power it

yields. SpT is a generator that

allows you to procedurally join, con-

nect, project and subdivide…can

you guess….that’s

right…SPLINES!!! SpT will save

you, simply, from having to connec-

tion and joining potentially _many_

splines in your project and losing

editability in the process. Not to

mention the headaches that can

ensue from spline manipulation with-

in a complex scene (we’ve all been

there). Well, SpT allows you to han-

dle a collection of any number of

splines as though you were handling

any other generator object (e.g.

Cube, Extrude NURBS, etc). All the

power comes from a super-simple

attribute panel for the SpT generator

(seen below).

Yep that’s it. Can you believe that’s

all there is and yet it can do soooo

much? Me either! I found SpT easy

enough to figure out that I didn’t

have to go fiddling to get things

going. I was able to immediately use

the features. Just got right in there

and was using the thing. How’s that

for workflow performance enhance-

ment?

There are really three main “object

properties” in which SpT will work.

Those are:

1) Closed: This works just like it

does with splines natively in C4D. It

will simply close the resulting spline

so that it is no longer open (and all

points will be connected). Each

spline is independent of the others,

so each spline will be closed within

itself unless you also use “join”

below (Image02)

2) Join Spline: This mode will join

the ends of the splines (i.e. the end

of spline1 will be joined with the

beginning of spline2 and the end of

spline2 will be joined with the begin-

ning of spline3, so on and so forth).

For this feature think of 4 arc

splines, joined together they form a

circle. (Image 03-04)

3) Closest Ends: This is a truly pow-

erful mode in SpT. In this mode SpT

will intelligently determine the best

path in which to join your splines.

Whereas you would normally get a

horrible join (meaning your shape

integrity would potentially be

destroyed) most times SpT will join

in such a way as to preserve your

desired shape. (Image05)

SpT also has some other important

features such as:

Collision Object: This field allows

you to specify a polygon object in

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Spline Spline TTools - Plugin bools - Plugin by Ry Renaenato to TTararaabellabellaBy GarBy Gary Zulloy Zullo

Image 01

Image 02

Image 03

Image 04

which SpT will attempt to collision

detect with. Unfortunately, object

generators are not yet supported,

nor are parametric primitives from

what I understand; only polygon

objects

Projection Direction: This specifies

the direction of project that SpT will

use if there is a collision object

defined.

Collision Distance: This is the offset

to be applied in the collision direc-

tion

Subdivision: After a projection is

computed SpT can then subdivide

the resulting spline

Also included is all the standard

CINEMA support for splines for

things such as Spline type, Plane,

Intermediate Points, Number of

Points and Angle. So there you have

it. SpT in all its wondrous simplicity.

Below I just wanted to include an

example of the spline projection

abilities of SpT. So, you can clearly

see that with a few settings and a lit-

tle tweaking you can project a spline

(or series of splines) onto any poly-

gon object you so desire.

I am thinking lots of repetitive details

could be “modeled” using splines

and adjusted to suit a particular pro-

ject’s need. Object re-use; more

workflow speed enhancement ?

(Image 06)

Summary:

If you do a lot of work with splines

you know what a pain they can be

to manage and so forth. SpT is an

excellent workflow enhancer in that

regard. However, if you don’t do

much work with multiple splines

then SpT may not give you any ben-

efit. That being said; Renato has

clearly demonstrated (again) that he

is very good at getting to the point

with this plugin and simply exposing

GREAT functionality.

As with most of his other plugins, I

find myself oft wondering “Why the

heck “that” feature isn’t native to

CINEMA”. So, to conclude: I really

liked this plugin’s capabilities, but it

may not be for everyone. If you do

any work with more than one spline

“ever” then you should definitely buy

this gem.

At 44 EUROS it will pay for itself the

very first time you try spline projec-

tion . SpT gets the “Me Likey” seal

of approval.

Price: 44 EUROS

Url: http://www.tarabella.it/c4d

Version: 1.01

Platform: PC/MAC

Support: R8.2+

Rating: 4/5

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Image 05 Image 06

Best of CINEMA 4DSome of the best artists around the world using CINEMA 4D

45

Image: Bathroom

Artist: Juan Carlos Pèrez Ponce

Country: Mexico

Date Created: August 2005

Website: www.infograficagdl.com

Software: CINEMA 4D and Photoshop

Artist Comments: The bathroom of a small apartment in

Punta Mita, Mèxico.

46

Image: Grimm

Artist: Jacob Saariaho (Cpt. Jack)

Country: USA

Website: www.cptjack.net

Date created: april 2005

Software: CINEMA 4D

47

Image: Illness

Artist: Adam Benton

Country: United Kingdom

Website: www.kromekat.com

Date created: 9/24/05

Software: CINEMA 4D R9.5,

Poser, Photoshop

Artist: Comments: An interpretation of

what it is like to suffer an illness of inde-

terminate duration. The original was origi-

nally created rotated 180°, but I felt this

perspective intensified the theme, by mak-

ing it more uncomfortable for the viewer.

48

Image: Meched and Haunted

Artist: Armin Schieb

Country: Germany

Website: http://home.arcor.de/drakath

Date created: September 2005

Software: CINEMA 4D 8 & Photoshop 7

Artist Comments: The evolution of that scene was really hard,

turned out very nice. Models are made in CINEMA 4D; Photoshop

was used for composition, clouds/dust and colors.

49

Image: "Detail"

Artist: Fredi Voss aka rollmops

Country: Germany

Date created: October 2005

Software: CINEMA 4 D 8.5 and 9.5

Artist Comments: The image is a compositing of a background

image I made for this picture and a cg-foreground. No global

illumination was used. Two lightsources and ambient occlu-

sion.Textured in BodyPaint.

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© 2004-2005 3D ATTACK TM